This was a good end-of-paragraph from Walter Russell Mead:
… Reckless Endangerment gives the best available account of how the growing chaos in the mortgage and personal finance markets and the rampant bundling of dubious loans into exotically toxic securities plunged the world, and millions of American families, into the gravest financial crisis since World War Two. It is gripping reading as well, and its explanations are clear enough that readers without any background in finance will have no trouble following the plot. The villains? An unholy alliance between Wall Street, the Democratic establishment, community organizing groups like ACORN and La Raza, and politicians like Barney Frank, Nancy Pelosi and Henry Cisneros. (Frank got a cushy job for a lover, Pelosi got a job and layoff protection for a son, Cisneros apparently got a license to mint money bilking Mexican-Americans of their life savings in cheesy housing developments.) [E.A.]
But I’m not sure I agree with Mead’s argument — that the Fannie Mae story represents a powerful blame-placing, election-winning narrative for GOPs and Teepers in 2012. It might, if the connection with Obama were stronger. But it’s not. (Yes, Obama picked Fannie villain James Johnson to run his VP search. That doesn’t seem like enough, though it reflected very bad judgment on Obama’s part.) ….